JERUSALEM: Israel on Wednesday rejected UN calls to open an independent inquiry into its conduct in last winter's Gaza Strip war and said it would launch a diplomatic offensive to block any attempt to bring its soldiers before an international war crimes tribunal.

An independent investigation into the war was a key recommendation of an explosive UN report that accused the Jewish state of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

The report, released Tuesday by UN-appointed investigators, said Israel used disproportionate firepower and disregarded the likelihood of civilian deaths in the offensive, which killed hundreds of noncombatants and caused widespread damage to Gaza.

It said that if Israel doesn't allow an independent investigation, the case should be referred to international war crimes prosecutors.

The report provoked a furor in Israel, whose Foreign Ministry said it was 'appalled and disappointed.'
Radio stations devoted heavy chunks of air time to interviews with outraged officials and critical legal experts.

'Classic Anti-Semitism,' blared the headline of an opinion piece in the Israel Hayom daily.

Israeli officials refused to cooperate with the five-month investigation, saying it was ordered by a UN body with a clear anti-Israeli bias. Israel's military has conducted its own inquiry and others remain pending, but so far has cleared itself of any systematic wrongdoing.

Government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel would not heed the call for an independent investigation and noted that army probes can be appealed in court.

'This report was conceived in sin and is the product of a union between propaganda and bias,' Regev said.

'Israel is a country with a fiercely independent judiciary ... Everything done by the military in Israel is open to judicial review by the independent judiciary.'

Human rights groups in Israel and abroad have tarred the military probes as a 'whitewash' and also called for an independent inquiry.

The UN team, headed by veteran war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, concluded that both Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

Israel launched the three-week war in late December to quash Palestinian militants in Gaza who had bombarded southern Israel for years with rocket and mortar fire.

Some 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the conflict, including hundreds of civilians, and thousands more were wounded. Thirteen Israelis also died, including four civilians. -AP